David is the little brother who shows up to visit his older brothers who, along with all of the other soldiers, have spent 40 days paralyzed in fear by Goliath's challenge to fight him. He asks what in the world is going on with all of these grown men and then after the explanation,
"David said to Saul, 'Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.'
Saul replied, 'You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth.'"
-1 Samuel 17:33
But David explains that his whole life has led up to this offer- he is not without practice as he has been keeping his father's sheep safe from lions and other wild animals, just as the little brother was supposed to. His life experience had uniquely prepared him, the little brother who wasn't even supposed to be at the battle, to fight Goliath. Saul is desperate and so he agrees.
"Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them.
'I cannot go in these,' he said to Saul, 'because I am not used to them.' So he took them off. Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd's bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine."
-1 Samuel 17:38-40
Saul tries to prepare David to fight with the things that the soldiers would have worn. With what he would have worn, if he were to face Goliath. David walks in them, but just admits he isn't comfortable.
It's like all the times we put on other people's clothing and just can't make ourselves feel comfortable in them.
Instead of believing that he needs to be like the others in order to fight, David simply takes off the armor and fights in his own clothing, with his staff.
And he wins. He responds to the call out of the resources of the experiences that God has used to shape him, to prepare him, to teach him- he is a shepherd and that is the life he knows, the skills he has.
Saul doesn't get this, he wants him to fight as he would, as a soldier, with armor and all that jazz. But David is secure in himself, in who God has created him to be, so he reclaims his individual nature, sheds the world's idea of what a soldier looks like and approaches the giant in his own clothing, his own skin, as who he is, as who the Lord has created him to be.
I'm in a period of preparation. The physical tasks of learning a language, reading up on the country where I'll be going, deciding what I'm going to pack are unable to be begun because I don't yet know where I'll be going or what I'll be doing. All I know is that I will be leaving.
And so I've been reflecting on what it means to prepare for work that feels wholly outside of my realm, a giant of questions and the deep sense that I cannot go with anything other than the skills, experiences and gifts that God has given me. Preparation of the heart has meant examining what it means to be so wholly comfortable with myself, with who the Lord has created me to be that I might approach as David did- doing the work, answering the call in a way that is innate to who he desires me to be.
To rip away the vestiges of the world's idea of armor, the world's way of doing things, the clothing that will only make me unable to walk, unable to respond, unable to approach.
To prepare myself to be me. Nothing more, nothing less.
Christ lives,
Prepare yourself!
So shouts this cliff on Isla del Sol, Bolivia.
And in other things, I love good summer music. I've been listening to this and this on repeat. Both respective albums are excellent as well.
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